NightWings
NightWings are a tribe of dragons that historically lived in the Night Kingdom (a location to the south of the Kingdom of Sand, on the Talon Peninsula on Pyrrhia, which is shaped like a dragon), before leaving to flee to the secret volcanic island off the northern coast of the Sky Kingdom because of Darkstalker (he scared his tribe into hiding and making the future NightWings give up their legendary gifts of mind reading and/or prophecy, for fear that another "Darkstalker" might rise again), and then finally to the Rainforest Kingdom under the rule of Queen Glory of the RainWings because of the volcanic eruption that destroyed the island they had inhabited. Many NightWings didn't like the fact that they were being ordered around by RainWings, and most decided to be ruled over by King Darkstalker, the first known full-power dragon king before Kinkajou changed him into Peacemaker using pieces of his talisman that she took from Chameleon. After this, the NightWings were more content with Glory as their queen. The queen of the NightWings before Queen Glory was Queen Battlewinner, whose identity had been a secret to the world and to some NightWings (an IceWing had breathed frostbreath into her throat and the only way to remain alive was to submerge herself in lava to keep the ice in her throat from spreading and eventually freezing her organs together). The NightWings kept this fact a secret, so as to prevent being seen as weak in front of the other tribes, as well as vulnerable with a dying queen. To hide this, they used Queen Battlewinner's daughter, Princess Greatness, to carry out the orders her mother gave to her. The volcanic island on which the NightWings lived was not shown on any known map of Pyrrhia because of the NightWings' secrecy and its distance from the mainland. They had created magic tunnels leading to the Rainforest Kingdom, made by an animus dragon named Stonemover (Princess Sunny's father who lives in Jade Mountain and has a curse given to him by himself to turn his scales to stone instead of corrupting his soul), and the one in the Rainforest Kingdom lead to one that lead to the Kingdom of Sand. In addition, they were secretly allied with Blister, although this alliance was broken when they surrendered to the RainWings. Most NightWings and IceWings despise each other due to a previous war between these two tribes (caused by Foeslayer of the NightWings and Prince Arctic of the IceWings, the parents of Darkstalker. IceWings believed that Foeslayer had stolen Prince Arctic because of his animus power, but in reality they had eloped). An example of this hatred is of Morrowseer's expedition to rescue Starflight from Ex-Queen Scarlet's Arena, in which he chose to unnecessarily kill all the IceWing prisoners. (In Winter Turning, ''Hailstorm, an IceWing prisoner in Queen Scarlet's was found to be alive, in Queen Scarlet's clutches after she got attacked with Glory’s venom and her daughter, Princess Ruby, claimed the throne.) Darkstalker told Moonwatcher in ''Moon Rising that any NightWing hatched under one full moon could either gain the ability to read minds or to see the future, while a NightWing that hatched under two full moons will be granted both. He also said that it was once believed that if an egg hatches under three full moons, the dragonet would be animus, but animus powers were proven to be genetic (confirmed by Winter), and not moon-given. Instead, Darkstalker says that the dragonet would still have both powers, but they would be stronger. Moonwatcher believed that since the NightWing eggs hatched in dark caves on the volcanic island, hidden from the moons, they no longer had powers, which Darkstalker had confirmed. This was the case for Starflight, who would've gained great powers if he had been hatched under the full three moons of the brightest night instead of inside the cave. The NightWing eggs were thought to be hidden from the moons because of Darkstalker, which was mentioned by Moonwatcher in Moon Rising and in the Darkstalker (Legends). NightWing hybrids can have powers, as shown with Darkstalker and Whiteout. Since the NightWings live in the Rainforest Kingdom now, it is possible there will be more moonborns and NightWing/RainWing hybrids. Description NightWings have forked, black tongues (like SandWings) and usually have black or purplish-black scales with silver, purple, dark green, or dark blue underscales like the night (mind readers have silver teardrop scales by the corners of their eyes like Moonwatcher). In ''The Dragonet Prophecy'', when Morrowseer dropped off Starflight, it said that the sun picked up glints of purple and deep blue on his body. They have been described with dark green, black, or emerald green eyes. The underside of their wings are always black, and speckled with silver scales that give them the appearance of a night sky filled with twinkling stars, allowing them to fly at night without detection. NightWings were once most active at night and tended to sleep during the day, but their nocturnal sleep schedule had been changed, so they now sleep at night, like the other dragon tribes. Starflight's father, Mastermind, has done studies about genetic wing patterns. Both Starflight and Mastermind have similar patterns, whereas Morrowseer's were different. Mastermind's theory appeared to be that the star spiral patterns are genetic. NightWings are also known to be able to hang "from crags and rocks and ceilings like bats," as described by Starflight in The Dark Secret. NightWing names are commonly made up of two words (for example, Mind-reader or Fate-speaker), although others are just made of one word (like Wisdom, Listener, or Greatness). Some of the names are about what that NightWing does (such as Queen Battlewinner or the assassin Deathbringer), and some are about how they look (such as Strongwings, who is bulky with large wings). Other names are lies, as Winter says in Moon Rising (such as Mindreader). Abilities NightWings are described to look like "the night sky coming down on you" when attacking. They move unseen through the shadows and blend into the night, which gives them a fearful reputation and makes them more deadly and excellent assassins. In scrolls, NightWings are said to possess legendary abilities. They are claimed to have the ability of mind-reading, as well as being able to tell prophecies by foreseeing the future; this was proven false by Stonemover, who said that no NightWing had either of these abilities in the last few centuries, which, unknown to the NightWings, was because the NightWing eggs had stopped being exposed to moonlight. However, a young dragon named Moonwatcher obtained the power to read minds and see the future because she hatched in the rainforest, proving these powers do still exist. Later in "Moon Rising", Moon says that other NightWings are having eggs in the rainforest, therefore under the moonlight, proving that these powers will come to thrive in the NightWing tribe and make the NightWings "all powerful" again. In addition, these dragons are also able to breathe fire at any time, like SkyWings and SandWings. NightWings also appear to be slightly fire-proof, as shown with Vengeance and Starflight. The NightWings who lived at the volcano seem to have a type of bacteria living in their saliva that does not affect them. They use it to incapacitate their prey, ensuring it can't go anywhere, then return later for it when its wound has become infected or it has died. However, other NightWings such as Starflight, Fatespeaker or Deathbringer, who lived away from the volcano a long time, ate freshly killed prey, making their saliva unlike those of the NightWings who lived by the volcano on the island. NightWings have been shown to be more active at night, with Deathbringer and Fatespeaker as examples. They seem to have a very strong sense of smell. Sunny's strong sense of smell and hearing came from her NightWing side and the SandWing side, respectively. Darkstalker told Moonwatcher in Moon Rising that a NightWing hatched under one full moon can either read minds or see the future, while a NightWing that hatched under two full moons has both. He also said that if an egg hatches under three full moons the dragonet still has both powers but strengthened. He did not know if there would be any stronger ones, though there have been some arguments that there might be. It is unknown why Clearsight had a stronger version of foresight. In Darkstalker: Legends, NightWings were shown to be very good at making up prophecies, and they attended special classes to learn how to make them sound real. They were also skilled at making it seem like they could read minds, due to the classes they took about lying mentioned in The Dark Secret. History Over 2,000 years after the Scorching, the Night Kingdom was located on a peninsula that is currently a part of the Sand Kingdom, which was described to have been riddled with valleys and mountains. After Darkstalker's abilities were shown, and he was believed to be a danger to the Tribe, the entire Kingdom fled the continent and migrated to a volcanic island a day's flight from the Sky Kingdom. More than a thousand years later, the long-dormant volcano erupted, destroying their home. The Dragonet Prophecy was written by Queen Battlewinner and Morrowseer during the war, and they delivered Starflight's and Fatespeaker's eggs to the Talons of Peace after a volcanic eruption on their island. The prophecy was their plan to invade and take over the Rainforest Kingdom, which was and still is inhabited by the RainWings. IceWings and NightWings have hated each other going all the way back to a war they once fought against each other. It was revealed in Darkstalker: Legends that this war was started because Prince Arctic fell in love and ran away with Foeslayer. Morrowseer ordered the death of all of the eight IceWing prisoners in the rescue of Starflight in Scarlet's arena, possibly because of the tribes' long-held grudge. This is also shown in the prophecy, which does not include an IceWing dragonet. Another possible effect of this hatred was Queen Battlewinner being blasted by an IceWing's breath in the mouth, forcing her to live submerged in lava. The NightWings gradually captured seventeen RainWings for their experimentations on RainWing venom, what Mastermind called "science". Their goal was to make venom-proof armor for an attack on the RainWings to take over their rainforest. However, all data was lost when the NightWings fled their home. Additionally, they seem to have animus dragons, however, Stonemover and Darkstalker are the only known animus NightWings, but it's also shown that Ex-Queen Scarlet had an animus that had no actual powers, only limited and taken from Darkstalker's talisman. This animus was revealed to be Chameleon who used the scroll's power to turn into a NightWing. In The Dark Secret, it is shown that the NightWings were being threatened by the volcanic island they inhabited, which was slowly building up to an eruption and diminishing the main source of food. Although Princess Greatness claimed that scientific estimates had placed the eruption at least twenty years into the future, at the end of the book, the volcano had erupted. Shortly before this, the NightWings surrendered to the RainWings in exchange for a safe place to live and food to eat. Most of the NightWings escaped through the Rainforest Kingdom portal unharmed. However, Morrowseer was (most likely) killed by the eruption, with what is believed to be his remains found in the NightWing tunnel in Winter Turning, and Starflight was blinded. The event where the NightWings traveled from their kingdom to the Rainforest Kingdom is called the NightWing Exodus. Society NightWings form lifelong partnerships, similar to SeaWings. Their dragonets live in dormitories located in caves on the sides of the volcano. They are not allowed to go to the mainland until they are at least ten years old because they "can't keep NightWing secrets safe." NightWing names are very literal, although sometimes ironic. These dragonets are usually named according to their talents; for example, Morrowseer got his name for "seeing" the "morrow." Morrow is short for tomorrow, meaning the future. Deathbringer's name refers to his occupation as an assassin. Queen Battlewinner presumably got hers for military strategy, or perhaps a future battle which was predicted to be won by her. Moonwatcher was named for as she hatched, her eyes reflected the moons. NightWings are occasionally named for physical traits, like Fierceteeth, Mightyclaws, Bigtail, and Strongwings, or after character virtues, like Greatness or Vengeance. Exactly how ''they know what a dragon's talent will be when it hatches is unknown. It is plausible that they might wait and see for it to appear, or have another NightWing predict it, although this is unlikely because it was revealed NightWings have not had powers in several centuries. Glory mentions in [[The Hidden Kingdom|''The Hidden Kingdom]] that in scrolls, NightWings always had "mouthful names". This is probably because most of them have two-part names. Also, in Moon Rising, Winter says to Moonwatcher, "We know all your names are lies", stating that NightWing names may be what the parents hope their dragonets will be, rather than what they may actually be. Complete loyalty seems to be an emphasized NightWing trait, as many of their actions (abducting RainWings, false dragonet prophecy, murders,) point towards a "blind loyalty" to their tribe, the willingness to do anything for their tribe, even wiping out another tribe of dragons. Before the NightWings fled to the volcanic island, they were, as Clearsight told Darkstalker, a tribe with a social culture, gaining from trades with the other tribes. Clearsight told Listener that every NightWing dragonet needs education, which shows that NightWings valued intelligence. Notable NightWings Starflight Starflight is one of the Dragonets of Destiny and the main protagonist of The Dark Secret. His replacement dragonet is Fatespeaker, with whom he later becomes friends with. He relies on his mind and knowledge rather than his combat skills. He does not possess abilities of mind-reading or foretelling the future, although he would've had both if he was born outside the cave, under the three full moons. He was revealed to have strong feelings for Sunny, the SandWing dragonet of the prophecy (but she only loved him like a brother). He is the half-brother of Fierceteeth and the son of Mastermind and Farsight. He still has relationship problems but was encouraged by Sunny to be with Fatespeaker. He is now the librarian at Jade Mountain Academy. Starflight is blind, due to the volcano explosion in The Dark Secret. Morrowseer Morrowseer is one of the most notable and important NightWings and had unlimited access to Queen Battlewinner's throne room. He is excluded from the rotating food schedule that NightWings have due to the lack of prey on the island, as he is too important to the tribe's future to eat so little. He is shown to be grumpy the majority of the time and tries to use Starflight to make the dragonets choose Blister as the new SandWing queen, but Starflight only ends up antagonizing Blister. Morrowseer might've died after he was engulfed in lava and fire from the volcanic explosion at the end of The Dark Secret. In Winter Turning, however, the outline of a dead dragon appears on the outside of the hidden tunnel connecting the volcano to the rainforest, which may be Morrowseer. Although Tui hinted that there may be a possibility that Morrowseer survived the eruption. It was confirmed in ''Moon Rising'' that Morrowseer was Moonwatcher's father, and his mate was Secretkeeper as Moonwatcher saw in her mother's mind. Queen Battlewinner Queen Battlewinner was the NightWing tribe's queen before they moved to the rainforest. She never showed herself to her tribe after her vital organs were frozen by an IceWing's frost breath while she was on the continent, and she communicated through her daughter, Greatness. She lived in a pool of hot lava, which counteracts the ice freezing her from the inside. She froze to death in a matter of seconds after exiting the lava pool in a furious attempt to kill Queen Glory of the RainWings. Princess Greatness Greatness is Queen Battlewinner's daughter. The queen speaks through her using small holes in the NightWing Fortress's walls. She wears a diamond necklace and she agrees to Starflight's plan of the NightWings coming to the Rainforest Kingdom. Deathbringer is known as her "pet assassin." Starflight describes her as not fit to rule as queen, as she does not have a majestic or commanding aura. Deathbringer Deathbringer is a NightWing assassin hired to kill a few of the dragonets. He was described by Glory as "a lot younger and smaller than Morrowseer, wiry and graceful in his movements even when he was startled." He is a lot less grumpy than some other NightWings. He clearly has feelings for Glory, as shown in The Hidden Kingdom. He uses sharp silver discs as weapons against the dragonets and Blaze. In The Dark Secret, he was imprisoned for aiding Glory, Kinkajou, and Clay in their escape from the island. Due to his relationship with Greatness, he narrowly avoided being executed. He is also the PoV for Assassin. Stonemover Stonemover is an animus dragon that used to live in a cave on the Jade Mountain. He was the one that made the tunnels from the NightWing island to the Rainforest Kingdom and from there to the Kingdom of Sand. He is the father of Sunny and mate of Queen Thorn. Instead of turning evil when he uses his animus powers, he "turned the magic on itself" by directing it towards his scales, not his soul, slowly turning every scale of his into stone. He is terrified of his power and refuses to use it. Fatespeaker Fatespeaker is a false dragonet of destiny and supposed to be Starflight's replacement. She has strong feelings for Starflight and helps him fly around due to his blindness. There is a possibility that she has very weak powers for telling the future, although most of her predictions are incorrect, or not correctly timed. She also works at Jade Mountain Academy and is the counselor and helper. It is confirmed that Fatespeaker has (limited) empathy powers. Moonwatcher Moonwatcher is the protagonist of Moon Rising. Her egg was left alone in the Rainforest Kingdom by her mother, Secretkeeper. She is telepathic and precognitive, as a result of being hatched under the light of two full moons. She usually goes by Moon and is in the Jade Winglet at Jade Mountain Academy. She is currently in a relationship with Qibli. Fierceteeth She is Starflight's half-sister and is the PoV for Prisoners. She wanted to be the NightWing for the prophecy, but she was hatched two years before the brightest night, which was too early. Darkstalker Darkstalker is an animus. Since he was born under three full moons, he also gained the powers of mind-reading and precognition. He was a NightWing and IceWing hybrid who killed his father and is the first animus of the NightWings. Foeslayer, his mother, ran away with Prince Arctic, and had two eggs together, though the IceWings think she "kidnapped" Arctic because the NightWings had no animus dragons at the time. According to the information in ''Escaping Peril'', Darkstalker enchanted his father to obey his every command and then he commanded his father to disembowel himself in public, which caused the NightWings to flee to another home. He was trapped forever under a sleeping spell cast upon him by his lover Clearsight and his friend and animus Fathom. He is later awakened when an earthquake breaks the cursed bracelet. Darkstalker finds out that Moon is a mind reader like himself and, by reading her mind, asks her to free him. Darkstalker is also the first known full-power king and was the king of the NightWings, but was defeated and turned into Peacemaker by Kinkajou in Darkness Of Dragons. Most of the NightWings agreed with him to be king with reasons such as Darkstalker being able to grant them any power they wish. Clearsight Clearsight was a NightWing with exceptional precognition powers that were more powerful than any other NightWing. However, unlike most seers, she could see many different threads of the future and could see many possible outcomes without them having to just come to her. She saw many different timelines where Darkstalker killed many other dragons, whether by going crazy because of his animus powers or by a series of events that eventually caused him to make his father, Prince Arctic, disembowel himself. After this, she and Prince Fathom took the last opportunity to stop him, by enchanting the copper bracelet which Darkstalker had given Clearsight when they were younger, to send Darkstalker into a deep sleep. After that, it is hinted that Clearsight travels out of the continent and finds new tribes of dragons and maybe goes onto have dragonets with someone else. In the prologue to The Lost Continent (Book) it is shown that Clearsight survives to trip to Pantala, saving many of the dragons there from a hurricane. It mentions in The Lost Continent (Book) that all HiveWings are believed to be her descendants. Current Rulers The current ruler of the NightWings is Queen Glory. Glory ascended to the throne once Queen Battlewinner died during the NightWing Exodus, and Princess Greatness claimed she didn't want the throne. In Talons of Power, Darkstalker proposes to be king of the NightWings and Glory agrees, only when Darkstalker finally convinces her. He took at least half of the NightWings with him, but when he was defeated in Darkness of Dragons the NightWings returned to the rainforest. After returning to the rainforest Queen Glory asked if they wanted their own NightWing queen but against Fierceteeth's wishes they decided that Queen Glory would be the best option. Names NightWing names can be compound words that describe NightWing powers, such as Fatespeaker and Mindreader. The names can also describe the dragon's personality or ability, such as Mastermind and Quickdeath. Descriptive words, such as Thoughtful, Vengeance and Listener, are used as well, as are night-themed compound words such as Starflight and Moonwatcher. Known NightWings * Allknowing * Queen Battlewinner * Bigtail * Commodore (also half SilkWing) * Clearsight * Clearsight’s Father * Darkstalker (also half IceWing) * Deadlyclaws * Deathbringer * Discretion * Eclipse * Eclipse (Darkstalker) * Farsight * Fatespeaker * Fearless * Fierceteeth * Firefly (also half RainWing) * Foeslayer * Foreseer * Princess Greatness * Jewel (also half SilkWing) * Jewel-eyes * Listener * Mastermind * Mightyclaws * Mindreader * Moonwatcher * Morrowseer * Morrowwatcher * Obsidian * Orange (also half SilkWing) * Peacemaker (also half RainWing) * Preyhunter * Prudence * Quickdeath * Quickstrike * Secretkeeper * Shapeshifter (Chameleon's NightWing form) * Slaughter * Smokeseer * Starclaws * Starflight * Stonemover * Strongwings * Sunny (also half SandWing) * Swiftwings * Thoughtful * Tortoiseshell (also half SilkWing) * Truthfinder * Tunesmith * Vengeance * Queen Vigilance * Vision * Whiteout (also half IceWing) * Wisdom Known Animus Dragons *Darkstalker *Stonemover Students At Jade Mountain Academy * Bigtail (deceased) * Fearless * Mindreader * Moonwatcher * Mightyclaws (formerly) Trivia * Including Legends and Winglets, there are five books with NightWing POVs, making them the tribe with the most POVs. * NightWings developed a kind of bacteria in their mouths, which helped kill prey. They would bite the said prey, then leave it to die of infection and come back to take it later. * The majority of all NightWing names have three syllables, (Moonwatcher, Darkstalker, Deathbringer, Mightyclaws, Stonemover, Mindreader, Preyhunter, Mastermind, Fatespeaker, etc). One has one syllable (Hope). A few have two syllables, (Farsight, Clearsight). Even less have four syllables, (Secretkeeper). * NightWings appear to have excellent night vision, but still can't see in total darkness like SeaWings can. * NightWings often have literal names that describe their profession or traits, such as Deathbringer, Mindreader, etc. * NightWing names are based on things in the night (Moonwatcher), their powers (Fatespeaker), their traits (Mastermind), or general descriptions of actions (Deathbringer) or appearances (Strongwings). ** Most NightWing names are compound words (made up of two real words). Examples: Mightyclaws (Mighty + Claws) and Moonwatcher (Moon + Watcher). * NightWings in Darkstalker (Legends) are portrayed as nocturnal before moving to the NightWing island. * According to Foeslayer in Darkstalker (Legends), NightWing mothers are the ones that name their dragonets. * NightWings are shown to have decent resistance to lava, as shown when Vengeance, who gets shoved in lava, tries to force his way out. This trait likely evolved on the volcano, so if they fall in lava, they might have been able to quickly pull themselves out. * There are currently at least 400 NightWings. *NightWings are shown to be very loyal to their tribe and have an arrogance similar to the IceWings. Morrowseer once explained to Starflight, "We assumed NightWing superiority was something all NightWings hatched with." Gallery Click here to see the gallery. de:Nachtflügler fr:Ailes de Nuit pl:Nocoskrzydłe ru:Ночные драконы Category:Tribes of Dragons Category:NightWing History Category:Tribes of Pyrrhia Category:Mentioned in Assassin Category:Mentioned in Darkstalker Category:NightWings